


Glass Walls

by ThreeAM



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Sburb Session, Beta Universe, F/M, Movie Production, Voice Acting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-03
Updated: 2013-04-03
Packaged: 2017-12-07 09:21:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/746883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThreeAM/pseuds/ThreeAM
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dave Strider was a kid star who got lucky and got to know people, and now at 24 he's already producing and starring in films. On a whim, he decides to break from his usual comedy department and auditions for a lead role in an animated spin-off of Red Riding Hood. When learns it was one of his friend Jade's favorite stories as a child, he encourages her to audition. But when they both land lead roles... he's not so sure if he can play it cool singing corny songs with his best friend while still thinking of her as a friend. This is the story of how Dave Strider did himself a favor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Glass Walls

**Author's Note:**

> Before i begin, let me give you some background on this one-shot. It's almost 11pm and i have to be up at 6am, but I can't sleep because i'm scared to lose the inspiration for this. I get inspired by the stupidest things, in this case it was a youTube comment of all things. I was watching studio versions of disney songs; i went through Tangled, Mulan, the Little Mermaid and then i found this Aladdin video, where Lea Salonga and Brad Kane were recording A Whole New World. I honestly usually ignore comments but one of the top ones for this video mentioned that Lea and Brad apparently had a crush on each other during recording. That kinda plucked a string in me and I thought of this! So I hope you enjoy my midnight shipping vomit.

It's a crisp morning. Not so crisp that you feel you'll crack if you bump into something too hard, but the kind of crisp that tickles your lips and nips at the back of your throat. Fortunately for everyone involved, the studio we're recording in is heated well and comfortable. I've been in a bunch of movies and two TV shows since i was 14, but never an animated film. So yeah, this is my first, and i'm sharing it with one of my best friends. I guess I should have been more embarrassed than I was when I told her about the whole thing, but after Jade's enthusiastic reception to my news about auditioning, I ended up convincing her to go for a role too, and now here we are in this studio (she's somewhere else right now, though. Probably getting a briefing about singing into these kind of mics.) The place is nicely decorated I s'pose, if you're into that sort of organized, matching look. Everything in here is wooden, grey or glass and you don't touch any equipment you aren't familiar with (and if you are familiar with it, you know how breakable/valuable it is so you don't touch it anyway). Three walls of soundproof goodness surround me and a fourth glass wall gives a view of the adjoining studio, set up similarly to mine. The music stand is set up in front of my mic in the corner, near a cork board that has pictures, sketches, facial expression sheets for my character, Leo. He's this adolescent, plucky, hunter/villager lookin' guy, with dirty blone hair and brown eyes, a dusty black cape, bow and arrows and ye olde sword of fatherly sentiment, snapped in half when his dad fought a wolf. You can sort of imagine his character just from that, right? Righteous, has a sword, out to avenge his father, fuck it's like Eragon all over again (and frankly once was enough of that particular dish). Joe, the director of whatever i've gotten myself into, is sitting across from me while i read over the script for the scene we're about to record. Well, i'd call it lyrics rather than a script. 

Most people wouldn't know i'm not just a rap kind of guy. I can actually hold a tune, pretty well i'd like to add. I never really new Jade sang either until Lalonde's ridiculous slumber party dealy back when we were about 16. I humored her cause it also happened to be her birthday, of course. It was just the four of us, John, Rose, Jade and I. Rose had a really cool place and it was huge and we all ended up playing hide and seek because we were just childish (and still are.) Afterwards they all decided it would be hilarious to just quit the game and not tell me since they couldn't find me anywhere, so after 20 minutes I catch on and leave, except I pass the bathroom on the way back and for a moment I swear Adele was in Rose's shower. Ok it wasn't Adele level but it was still pretty amazing for a girl her age. When I told John and Rose they just made fun of me for creeping outside the bathroom while she was showering but I shit you not, Jade Harley was an amazing singer. Still is, even. Well, good enough to land this role, of course. (Ok so I was in a film of Joe's before and I might have put in a good word for Jade when the auditions were going but that's how it is in the industry. It's just as much about who you know as it is about what you can do.)

"Are you good?" Joe breaks my train of thought. I'd spaced out there, fuck knows how long but there was no use worrying about it now.  
I look up and nod, pushing myself to me feet with a grunt that is the distinct sound of a man who is up far earlier than what he is comfortable with. "Yeah," I say. "We're good."

I take my place behind the music stand with my script spread open on it and place he headphones over my ears, pulling the right one back away from my ear so I can hear myself better. Now directly in front of me is the glass wall, and i can see across in the other room. It's like a mirror image of the one i'm in, except instead of my plucky young forest brat on the cork board, it's Ruby. I always found it funny (funny in the way that you keep it to yourself because it's only a fleetingly interesting thought) that Jade is voicing a girl who also is named after a gemstone. Even better red and green are contrasting colours. Anyway, Ruby obviously has her signature red hood, and a long cape attached, short, dark brown hair poking out from under it. The hem has silver embroidered patterns on it and she wears a dark grey skirt that goes just past her knees with a red frilly skirt puffer dealy underneath it (i have no idea what the fuck those things are called and I don't care to find out.) She wears a white and grey cincher over a black long- sleeved blouse and white and red boots. Her weapon of choice is a slingshot, which is different. More importantly than Ruby is the fact that Jade is still not in the room.

I look down at my book and the green light goes on. Time for my one-sided conversation. "Would it kill you to take some time off for once?.......You're always doing things for other people...... Exactly. So do yourself a favor and get out a little. No offense." Joe tells me to change the stressing on certain words and i re-do two of the lines. As i go on I spot the door in the opposite room open. "Come on, lets go for a walk..... In the forest, of course!.... Oh come on you only get in trouble if he catches you, and we all know i'm far too sneaky to get caught. Which means you... are sneaky by association."

We wait a few minutes for Jade to record her half on the other side. Joe transfers rooms and I sit back, watching her. Even though he glass I can tell she's kind of tense; i've known her for half of my life now, so I can tell when she's nervous. She takes a few minutes, repeating lines. I can see Joe interjecting, coaching her along, but eventually she gets it and I stand up, stepping to the mic again. She looks up and makes eye contact, and she pulls a face. I smirk, mouth 'relax' to her, and she nods and pushes her hair behind her ear. I should probably take my own advice.

We have to sing. The orchestrated part is already done, we sang through it with them before. But I didn't really have to face her then, and we have to record it now. It's weird to sing with your best friend especially when people are watching you and especially especially when its the goddamn sappy number and fuck the music is starting. Its awful cause I gave to go first but it's good because I know me going first means she has to stress less about it. Still, i fuck up the first line immediately and we have to start over. 

_"Dave, I can't audition for a movie. People like me don't just do stuff like that!" She's curled up next to you, cocooned in the comforter off your bed while you're not quite bold enough to squish in with her. If the comforter had any stale man smell on it, she made no indication that she noticed or minded. "We're not all hotshots like you, y'know." She shoots you that smile that makes you feel like she can read you like a book._  
"Sure you can. I did, didn't I? I mean when I was a kid. Besides, you'd be good at it, and it's only a voice role. You don't even need to know all the body language and stuff cause you're only a voice." You point out, reaching for her hot chocolate to steal some. You don't like chocolate but you drink it anyway because you're cold.  
"Hey!" Jade protests, throwing a pillow at you as you put the drink down. "I still can't voice act. Besides, there's singing! I can't sing, I didn't even know you sang! Since when did you sing??"  
You smirk and lift your hands. "Too many questions too fast Harley, slow down. And you can so sing."   
"How would you know?" She demands, and when you give her your cockiest, know-it-all grin she doesn't look comforted.  
"I heard you singing in the shower at Lalonde's house once." You say smugly, raising your eyebrows in a way that dares her to argue. 

"Dave? Dude..."

_She's quiet for a while after that, the movie that neither of you are really watching blaring far too loud on the TV. She's pretending to concentrate but you know she knows you're watching her like a hawk. Her eyes, still bright even in the dim light of the TV, concentrating a little too hard; her lips, which she keeps pressing together and popping; the way she tilts her head occasionally. Finally, she says "I'll think about it," so quietly you almost don't hear it, but you smile anyway because you know you've already won._

"Dave!" The shout through my headphones snaps me back to reality. Everyone is staring at me, and the orchestrated part I recognize as being somewhere after the first chorus is playing through the headphones but Jade isn't singing.... and with a pang of guilt I realized that I wasn't singing either.  
"Holy shit. I'm so sorry I..." Joe is laughing, I don't know why but it's probably because I looked like a royal idiot just now, but more concerning is the fact that Jade wears an expression I don't really recognize, which is rare. "...Um. Spaced out. Sorry."  
Joe runs a hand through his hair and smirks at Jade through the glass, and she is suddenly very busy straightening out the papers on her stand. Somewhere in that blank spot Joe came over, probably to try and decipher why I just blanked out halfway through a recording. Man, i feel like a monumental douchebag, totally embarrassed myself in front of my boss and Jade. "Let's go again!" He announces.

And we do. Three times to be exact. I concentrated on the paper and Jade's voice through the headphones and managed to complete the three takes pretty well. The only reason we took three was because Joe needed the infliction in some parts to be sung differently than we did. We finally got it down to a point where he was satisfied with it and we were satisfied with it. I was happy it was over with, don't get me wrong, but something about doing that made me want to throw up and not just because it was a love song and it was corny. It was because it was a love song that i just sang in duet with Jade Harley, the girl through the glass who is talking to Joe like she's totally cool with everything and tying her hair back in that messy ponytail she does and biting her lip when she concentrates and... 

I need to stop spacing out like that.

Jade is gathering up her script and i'm still gathering my wits when Joe walks in. The sound guy is packing his shit but otherwise nobody is around. "Dave, what happened in there?" He asks me, looking like a smug asshole, like he knows something i don't.   
I shrug. "Haven't the faintest. Got nervous I guess?"  
"Don't ask me. I thought Dave Strider didn't get nervous."  
"I don't."  
"So why did you?"  
I shove the script in my bag and don't answer. I'm really not in the mood for this conversation.  
He's silent for a moment, until i stand to leave. "She never sings like that in the other songs, you know."  
I stop for a second, make the fatal mistake of looking up, mouth twitching in the way that betrays me. He knows. And it's then that her weird expression from before clicks and it hits me that I was probably staring at her blankly for that entire time. I clear my throat and sling my bag over my shoulder.  
"You know," Joe says just before I reach the door, "I think we'll to another take of that tomorrow. It's later in the day, just see how you feel. Maybe try and sort yourself out between now and then?" I turn around to look and he's got a smug look on his face. "If you know what I mean."

I nod and leave. As soon as the door closes i'm sprinting down the staircase and out the door and I look up and down the street but I can't see her. Which is cool, i can just call her, but that means i'm gonna be battling with myself for hours later about--

"Can I get a lift?" I look ahead and realize after having looked up and down the street she was literally right in front of me. Right there. She's got a reserved expression on her face and she's leaning against the passenger's side door, hunched against the nippy breeze.   
"Did you need to ask?" I reply, and the car beeps twice and the locks click as I press the button on the key. Her smile comes out and she laughs with her eyes, and when she swings into the front seat and her ponytail sways i spot a stand that's still looped under the elastic and I'm struck with the urge to comb it out for her but instead I get into the drivers' seat and start the engine. Crowded House starts blaring from where I left it when i got out of the car this morning but once we're on the road, I turn it down and glance over at her. She's got her knees pulled up to her chest and is tapping her foot to the beat and her dark, wavy mop is pulled over her shoulder. The mid-morning light shines in when we turn a corner and I might have taken a picture if i wasn't driving.

"Dave?" Her voice chimes in all of a sudden, halfway through the trip and I look over, raise my eyebrows. "How come you stopped singing?"  
I swallow. That's not a question i was ready for, but then again I probably never would be so it was best to get it over with. "I uh. Got distracted."  
"Really." There's sass in her voice, and a disbelief that says she knows there's more to it. "You kind of stared for a while. You looked totally dopey!" There's laughter in her voice but I know she's strained by the topic too.  
"Well you know I can't be expected to look completely stoic all the time. Gotta rest the facial muscles from all that god damned pouting y'know." The reply is smooth but it still doesn't feel like it. The fact that I dodged the question and we both knew it was probably the culprit there.  
She sighs, a breathy sort of sound that sounds like it was very pleasant to exha-- fuck that sideways. Pleasant exhaling? What the fuck am I saying here? "It's just--"  
"It's weird. Singing like that with you. I don't know I freaked out I guess."  
Jade looks strange now. I panic. What have I said now? "Oh. Yeah I guess... it's pretty weird. But it's only acting right? If it's that bad, then..." she trails off and if she hadn't have been in the car with me I would have crashed then and just ended it all. But then again if she wasn't in the car we wouldn't be having this conversation.  
"It's not bad. It's weird is all. It shouldn't matter but I got over it."  
"I don't know, Dave." She says, resting her chin on her hand and her elbow on the window. "I enjoyed it." I'm not looking at her but I can tell she's glancing at me. Waiting for my reply.  
I nod. "Yeah, Joe said you did really well. Better than the solos and the other duet with Mark so far." I smirk. Your move, Harley.  
"Well, maybe i'm upstaging the great Dave Strider? He's losing his game a little today." I can _hear_ the smug smile on her face.  
"Or maybe i'm just so insatiably handsome that the mere sight of me is inspiring. I wouldn't be surprised if you were hit with a sudden burst of artistic inspiration looking at me during a love song."  
She's quiet for a second and I think i've won, until i glance over and she's giving me a look. Eyebrows raised, lips curled into a smirk, eyes glowing with life, the way they always do.  
"What?"  
"At least i wasn't struck speechless." 

The rest of the car ride hangs in a tense silence. I think we both knew that we weren't just joking around there, but tried to play it off like we were. I pulled up across the street from her apartment and the engine dies down, and suddenly the silence was 400 tonnes heavier than it was before. She wasn't getting out of the car, I could tell she was debating how long she had already stayed and how much longer she should stay. Meanwhile, i'm not sure i want her to get out. Actually i'm pretty sure I don't? Well at least I seem pretty damn sure when I grab her sleeve, stopping her as her other hand is on the door handle. She freezes, I freeze, everything ever freezes and we probably only sat like that for a second but it felt like forever. Finally, her fingers slip off the handle and my hand leaves the steering wheel and pushes my stupid awesome shades on top of my head as I lean over to her. For a second I think she's going to vomit (she almost goes green but shes beautiful regardless) but she meets me halfway. Her hair is in my face, i'm bent at an awkward angle and my shades are slipping back down and resting against her forehead but I don't think either of us really care.

I don't think the problem was the song or the awkwardness or any of that. I think the problem was the wall in between.

**Author's Note:**

> I have a feeling that was a bit OOC but i'm way too tired to care. I hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
